David C. Kimball, professor and interim chair of the Political Science department at the University of Missouri, St. Louis joined the West County Democrats today to discuss Current Election Issues in Missouri and the United States. His presentation and Glenn Koenen’s legislative report can be viewed here:
Comments during the meeting:
Mary Gross : Can you put the membership payment address in the chat please?
Karen Cloyd : West County Dems P.O. Box 31034 St. Louis, MO 63131
Mary Gross : thank you !
Christine Garhart : HR1 was passed by the House before the 2020 election, but the Senate did not consider it.
Jean Light : Please repeat the text number for MOVPC.
Grace James : Where do the MO bills stand as of now? Have any passed in the House yet?
West County Democrats : Any legislative effort to restore USPS reliability in support of elections?
Maureen Jordan : I am tryin to raise my hand but can’t remember how to do it!
Jessica LaBozzetta : Maureen, it’s under “reactions” on the bottom bar with the chat and participants buttons.
Maureen Jordan : Thank you!
Karen Francis : MOVPC 66866, karen francis
Karen Cloyd : Thanks, Karen….
Karen Francis : MOVPC has weekly call @ 10 am every Monday- very informative
Maureen Jordan : https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2019-07/Report_HeritageAnalysis_Final.pdf
West County Democrats : News 21 https://votingrights.news21.com/
Maureen Jordan : https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud
Christine Garhart : The Georgian law that makes it a crime to offer food or drink to a person in line. Do you think a court would strike down that provision?
Karen Francis : SOS in GA and NV, both Republicans, have been censored by their state legislatures because they both certified their election results
David Kimball : Text MOVPC to 66866
Maureen Jordan : Excellent presentation, thank you!
Maureen Jordan : Unfortunately, the GOP appointed state judges are poorly qualified, too. 🙁
Mary Gross : Hope that Manchin will vote his party for the Infrastructure bill
Maureen Jordan : What was the bill that is trying to remove birth control from Medicaid?
Grace James : There is an article in the paper this morning about it.
Cathy Marek : Fast democracy.com is also an excellent way to track bills.
Cathy Marek : fastdemocracy,com
Cathy Marek : What can we do other than move?
Maureen Jordan : FastDemocracy database is great. We did a short training on this at Chesterfield Twp Democrats meeting on March 9.
Grace James : Storm the capitol!
Maureen Jordan : To track bills
Legislative Report – April 12, 2021
Glenn Koenen
Federal Items:
“You could be a total moron and get elected just by having an R next to your name—and that year, by the way, we did pick up a fair number in that category.”
Former Speaker Of The House John Boehner
The Republican Party continues to have no interest in governing. They exist – at all levels – to hinder the consideration and implementation of all efforts to make things work.
Note that in Washington Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has already warned his members that none of them will vote for any part of the Biden Administration’s infrastructure plan. He has also said that gun control (even measures supported in polling by the majority of NRA members!) will not get GOP votes, and, Republican senators will continue to work to reject or delay Biden’s appointments to top government positions.
And, of course, the GOP will die in the streets trying to protect the Trump tax cuts for the richest Americans and corporations.
Making big changes requires big money. The Biden stimulus bill hit $1.9 trillion because of the sheer scale necessary to jump start the economy while maintaining higher expenditures on unemployment pay, food stamps and other support programs.
With food stamps, basically the administration has expanded on temporary supplemental benefits issued in 2020. This has increased the typical benefit per person per meal by about $1.00, to about $2.50 in Missouri. To implement that increase nationwide takes about $4 billion a month. That additional money helps families, food pantries (be taking some pressure off demand) and grocery stores!
A friendly ruling by the Senate parliamentarian will allow Biden’s $2.5 trillion infrastructure plan to pass with the 50 Democrat votes and the vice president – if conservative Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia goes along.
Note that while Republicans in Congress have decried the massive spending, no GOP governor has said they will refuse the money for roads, food stamps, unemployment pay…
Expect a lot of media pushback from FOX and such to the Biden proposal to raise the corporate tax rate and to create a ‘Facebook Rule.’ Many American corporations launder their profits through low-tax countries, avoiding sending money to Uncle Sam. Biden wants to require such companies to pay the United States Government 15% of what they tell the Securities and Exchange Commission they made in profit. Money from this effort will help fund the infrastructure work.
One lingering impact of the Trump years: USDA’s internal background checks of critical hires are running two years behind schedule due to reductions in the staff handling that work.
State Items:
For the first time in a long time, Missouri has money!
As of April 8, for example, Missouri General Revenue was running $1,039,008,319.52 ahead of the same time last year, led by a 17% jump in individual income tax.
And, Missouri has billions ‘off the books’ sitting in banks (or headed to the state) in federal stimulus payments.
Despite this, the Missouri legislature continues to plead poverty. While the Republican supermajority in the House of Representatives did largely “fully fund” elementary and secondary education at what they call and adequate level, the House budget chair (Cody Smith of Carthage) stripped money from the governor’s budget to fund Medicaid Expansion.
Not only did Smith not fund Medicaid, he took that money from the governor’s budget and dispersed it to a variety of other programs by creating a new (possibly improper) new funding bill, HB 21.
Under the Missouri Constitution only the House can appropriate money. Yet, it is the governor and other bureaucrats who are responsible for fulfilling constitutional obligations. So, unless common sense prevails, it is possible that it will take court action to make the governor steal money from other accounts – or, more likely, strip funds from other parts of Medicaid – to fund expansion for 250,000 or more Missourians.
Keep in mind that Missouri will be represented in court by a governor who told Missourians to vote against expansion and an Attorney General who is on record as calling the expansion an illegal overreach by the federal government.
Medicaid expansion will happen…it might just be delayed a few months or several years.
Here’s a quick round-up of some of the bad ideas which have already passed in the Missouri House:
HB 52 Allowing concealed carry of public transit (including Metrolink)
HB 85 The Second Amendment Preservation Act which prohibits cooperation with the feds
HB 75 Limiting public health agencies of much of their power to respond to crisis
HB 333 Imposing a $500 filing fee on initiative petitions and increasing legislative oversight
HB 543 Establishing rules for voluntary transfers out of district of residence
HB 554 Tinkering with the St. Louis County sales tax pool rules
Meanwhile, the Senate voted in favor of an Amendment by Senator Wieland from Jefferson County to ban Medicaid from spending any money on birth control prescriptions or services – breaking federal rules and invalidating payments from Washington to pay for most of Missouri’s Medicaid costs.
Senate Bill 40 would take St. Charles, Jefferson and Lincoln counties out of the area where vehicle emission tests are required: this would be 99% certain to cost Missouri $52 million per year in federal highway money.
The Conservative Caucus in the Senate is also pushing an end to Personal Property tax in Missouri – which result in a billion loss in revenue to local schools – as well as several trims to the state income tax and corporate income tax.
The legislature is coming to the aid of Missourians who received too much unemployment pay. Even though the mistakes were the fault of state employees using a flawed computer system, Governor Parson wanted to force repayment of the funds (up to $12,000 in some cases).